I tell her and everyone quietly, “Then I’ll keep sharing my ice cream with whoever wants to eat it.”
“And if none of us will risk it?” Romasa asks sharply.
Then her expression freezes as she apparently realizes what that sounds like out loud.
That it is the Order that is the biggest risk.
And that they are a risk toeating ice creamis pretty damning.
“Then I’ll still keep making it,” I say lightly, “and we’ll see if I can find a limit to how much ice cream one person can hold.”
Romasa glances at Nomi. “You have been uncharacteristically quiet this whole time, Nomi.”
“What did I need to say when that viper was doing all the work for me?” Nomi drawls. “Just because she’s beautiful doesn’t mean she’s less of a snake. If you all can’t see the truth of what she’s selling you, then you’re as much sheep as she thinks you are.”
Ha, I definitely underestimated her. She could have done a lot simply standing next to Eraya and making sarcastic faces in reaction to whatever the sage said.
But Nomi also could have simply stood there as safety for her people, proving that she would show up for them even against her own interests and safety; a subtlety Eraya missed.
Or one she thought wouldn’t matter, given how much work she could do against an individual audience.
But I think she didn’t take into account how much it would matter to people that Nomi actually knows them, when the sage doesn’t.
“Not a conversation for you anymore, Yora,” Nomi tells me with a nod.
“Of course.” I bow and turn around.
Teren doesn’t come with me, which makes me worry a bit. He was quiet that whole time, too, but visible. Eraya might not have known that Crystal Hollow is now aware that he’s a sage, but they do, and I’m not sure what conclusions they will have drawn.
I’m not sure whether as a sage he will still get to have a voice in the discussions, even if they’remostrelevant to him.
But Teren was right before; the point of making himself visible as a sage is to be visible, and I have to let him do that.
Before I started training him, I told him that I believed he could handle himself, and now I have to actually allow him to.
Out of sight again, I’m about to extend my senses to see if I can locate Zan when he appears next to me.
Unharmed.
I let out a big breath.
And an instant later, we’ve both crossed the space between us and are enclosed in each other’s arms.
Safe. We made it.
And maybe for once we’re not going to talk about the fact that we’re both shuddering with relief at being back together again.
Are these mating instincts, or is this just love?
“What was Learned Mujin up to?” I ask, muffled against his chest.
“Directing priests to blow out what spells peopledohave in their infrastructure here.”
I jerk in his arms. “What?! We should tell—” I break off my own words and thump back against his chest. “They won’t believe us.”
“Yes. But if we don’t say anything, they will guess.”
I wonder, “Which way will that make them lean, though?”
